The present invention relates generally to personnel gates for conveyors which open to allow a person to pass from one side of the conveyor to the other, and close to connect an upstream portion of the conveyor with a downstream portion of the conveyor via a conveying surface of the personnel gate.
It is known to provide conveyor personnel gates between portions of a conveying path to allow people to get from one side of the conveying path to the other. The personnel gates typically are lowered to a closed position, whereby the conveying surface of the gate extends between an upstream and downstream portion of the conveying path to form a generally continuous conveying path. The gates may be raised to an opened position, such that a person may walk through the opening at the gate to cross from one side of the conveying path to the other.
Typically, such conveyor gates are pivotably mounted to an upstream end of the conveying path and are closed to engage a saddle or receiving bracket at the downstream end of the conveying path. This requires corresponding mounting components at both the upstream and downstream ends of the conveying path, such that the gates are not easily installed at various conveying paths. Accordingly, the gates may be applicable only to the specific conveyors for which they are designed, which may further lead to many designs of conveyor gates in order to provide gates for various conveyor designs.
Conventional conveyor gates are manually raised and lowered between their opened and closed positions. A concern with many of the prior art conveyor gates is that when released by an operator during the closing process, the gates may slam down to their closed position. Not only is this hard on the components of the gate and the conveyor, which may lead to greater maintenance and repair costs, this also raises safety concerns for a person or persons who may be walking past or under the gate as it slams down to its closed position. Additionally, many prior conveyor gates are not securable in their upward or open position, such that the conveyor gates may unexpectedly close without manual intervention.
Also, when raised to their upright, open position, the upper end of most conventional gates extends the entire length of the gate above the height of the conveyor at which it is mounted, because the gate is pivotable about a fixed horizontal axis at the conveyor. The gate thus may interfere with low overhead clearance conveyors or other items at a low height above the conveyor and gate.
The present invention is intended to provide a conveyor personnel gate which is movable between opened and closed positions and which may be latched in both the opened and closed positions. The gate is easily moved between its opened and closed positions in response to a biasing member which assists in raising and lowering the gate in a controlled manner.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a conveyor personnel gate comprises a support, a conveyor portion and a latch. The conveyor portion is pivotally support by the support and pivotable about a generally horizontal axis at the support. The latch is operable to latch the conveyor portion relative to the support in both an opened position and a closed position. The latch may include a user handle which is operable to actuate the latch in response to movement of the user handle. The user handle may also allow a user to move the conveyor portion of the gate between the opened and closed positions via movement of the handle. Preferably, the conveyor portion is self-propelled in a controlled manner to the opened position when the conveyor portion is positioned between a particular position and the closed position. Additionally, the conveyor portion may be self-propelled to the open position when the conveyor portion is moved to a position between the particular position and the closed position.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a conveyor personnel gate comprises a support, a conveyor portion and a handle operated latch assembly. The conveyor portion is pivotally supported by the support and is pivotable about a generally horizontal axis. The handle operated latch assembly includes a grasp handle at the conveyor portion and a latch. The grasp handle is movable relative to the support to move the conveyor portion about the axis. The latch is operable to latch the conveyor portion in at least one position, and is unlatched in response to movement of the grasp handle.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a conveyor personnel gate comprises a support, a conveyor portion and a biasing member. The conveyor portion is pivotally supported by the support to pivot about a generally horizontal axis. The biasing member is operable to control movement of the conveyor portion about the axis between a generally horizontal closed position and an open position. The biasing member is interconnected between the support and the conveyor portion such that the biasing member biases the conveyor portion toward the closed position when the conveyor portion is positioned between a neutral position and a closed position. The biasing member further biases the conveyor portion toward the opened position when the conveyor portion is positioned between the neutral position and the opened position. In a preferred embodiment, the biasing member is interconnected between the support and the conveyor portion via an over center mount arrangement. Optionally, the gate may further include a damper which is operable to dampen, retard or otherwise control movement of the conveyor portion toward the closed position.